Rogue trader Nick Leeson lands new job

Investors and staff at what was once the City’s oldest merchant bank may not remember Nick Leeson in quite such glowing terms, but his new clients may see the 827 million pounds of trading losses he racked up in 1995 as a badge of honour.

After 13 years on the speaking circuit since being released from a Singapore jail, Mr Leeson has landed a job in financial services in Ireland as an alternative insolvency practitioner. He plans to help over-indebted borrowers negotiate a deal with their banks.

Mr Leeson is joining GDP Partnership to mediate on behalf of distressed borrowers with debts of more than 1 million euros to find “the best possible outcome for both bank and borrower”, said Conor Devine, a chartered surveyor and one of GDP’s founding partners.

Mr Leeson, who has lived in Ireland for the past 10 years, told the Irish Independent newspaper: “Banks in Ireland were part of the problem by lending recklessly and now they have to be part of the solution.”

He will join as head of the Dublin office and will be supported by a team of property, accountancy, legal and banking professionals.

It builds on GDP’s successful model in Northern Ireland, where the company’s catchphrase is “a solution is always possible”.

Mr Leeson may have broken Barings, but Ireland’s financial crisis brought the entire country to its knees. Since the crash, Dublin has injected €80bn into its banks and nationalised or part-nationalised six of them.